Yankee Candle is an American company who offer a wide range of regular and seasonal candle products.

*~*Holiday Home Sweet Home*~*

Holiday Home Sweet Home is a Christmas exclusive scent from Yankee Candle. It can be purchased in jar, votive, wax tart ot tea light form. The scent is described as

"A familiar, welcoming seasonal blend of cinnamon, cloves, cedar, pine, smoked firewood and vanilla".

The scented sampler hosting this scent is a small, individual votive candle.The votive should placed in a suitable holder and burned for a few hours at a time. Each votive has a wick which burns down to a silver disc at the base. Holiday Home Sweet Home is a deep green colour. It is shrink wrapped in clear plastic and has an image featuring stockings and a christmas tree.

The sampler should give 15hours of scent.

*~*Price*~*

As this is a seasonal release, I recommend pick this up quickly if you want to try it. It is priced on Amazon at £1.63. Local shops may stock this just now. If you are quick, www.yankeedoodle.co.uk have the sampler priced at 40p in their seasonal sale.

*~*My Thoughts*~*

I love my candles and love burning one at night time. I find it relaxing it a candle always brightens up my alcove giving my living room a cosy feel. My preferance is Yankee Candles and I often stock up online whenever I see a bargain. I bought the Holiday Home Sweet Home sampler for myself recently and also bought the tart for my sister (as I have bought her a tart burner for christmas). It is worth noting that the tart smells so much stronger even when wrapped but this is normal for Yankee Candle.

This sampler does look very festive and almost like it has just left a forest full of deep green, pine trees. I placed my sampler in my votive holder and gave the rather long wick a quick trim before lighting. The wick began to melt down quite quickly and a poor of green wax formed around it. It looked beautiful and different from the majority of Yankee offerings.

*~*Christmas Is Here!*~*

Once the wax has melted, a subtle scent begins to filter from my votive holder. I personally find that Holiday Home Sweet Home would be more vibrant and deeper in scent in tart form as the votive produced a rather subtle scent. I placed it in my small bathroom and then moved it to my hall the next time and it seemed to be more noticeable in smaller areas. It took a good half hour of burning for the scent to filter around my living room when placed in my alcove but it didn't travel around our flat like other Yankee scents which is disappointing.

Holiday Home Sweet Home is an absolutely delightful scent which is comforting and uplifting at the same time. It seems to capture the essence of christmas spirit in general and is very inviting despite lacking the intensity that I desire. The name of the scent doesn't exactly give much away but the official description I feel is almost spot on.

The scent is quite natural and has a rather complex blend of scents. It works well and everything is blended well with no scent cancelling another out completely. I would say the most prominent aroma is that of a forest - freshly cut pine trees with woody hints. There is a strong, homely spiciness which really does give the scent its christmas feel and is very warming - I believe the cloves and cinnamon would have brought this to the scent.

After an hour or so of burning, the spiciness settles slightly bringing forward of crisp, woody sweetness. This blend creates an almost burnt vanilla scent which mingles with the fresh pine perfectly. Holiday Home Sweet Home differs from the other Yankee Christmas scents as it doesn't just settle for fruit, sweet or earthy aromas - it goes a bit further and blends a few together and the result is interesting and very distinctive in my opinion.

Whilst up close, sniffing this votive made me think of continental christmas markets though I am not quite sure why!

*~*Conclusion*~*

Despite lacking strength, I burned this candle for a few hours morning and night for a few days and would say I got 12hours from this votive. It burned down evenly so no wastage and retained a consistent scent until the last piece of wax melted away. I was happy to burn this day or night due to the fresh and cosy feel so it is versatile. At 40p it is an absolute bargain and I have put in an order for another few whilst they are cheap.

I recommend this scent but would say to go for the wax tart for a stronger aroma.

Thanks for reading x